FRANK MORBILLO

About the Artists:

Frank Morbillo‘s abstract sculptures emanate from his experience of the Southwest landscape; not in a descriptive, representational way, but rather as he bears witness to the sustained and dramatic effects of time on his environment. Aspects of human interventions on the eco-systems that he patiently observes also appear in his work and sometimes merge with natural features. We see undulating buildings, or are they the sides of slot canyons? Layers of flagtones, or are they curved adobe walls?

Morbillo’s mastery of the materials and processes is apparent in his stainless steel, glass, mild steel, and bronze works with rich patinas, which are in turn subjected to the impact of the environment. In many sculptures, he combines two materials: glass and metal, or steel and bronze. The resulting contrast evokes the smooth and craggy textures, the bright light and deep shadows, the wide sky and sculpted canyons.

Biography:

Frank Morbillo was born in Queens and raised on Long Island, but as a young adult moved west — first to Montana and eventually to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Morbillo’s work is clearly influenced both by the man-made landscape of urban architecture, and by the starker, more abrupt western landscapes which stand as evidence of the forces that shape our natural environment.

Morbillo’s first artistic love was ceramics. As an undergraduate at Alfred University in upstate New York, Morbillo explored and pushed the structural properties of ceramics. His first exploration in metal came during a winter session in coal forging, where he glimpsed that the structural properties of metals offered a whole new language. Learning to work metal added volumes to Frank’s artistic vocabulary; metal could be cast, cut, welded, and otherwise shaped by a great many processes. With metal, the scale of Morbillo’s work was able to grow.

After receiving his BFA from Alfred, Morbillo spent two years working in the building trades (thereby expanding his knowledge of construction processes) before attending graduate school at the University of Montana in Missoula. Some of his first works from his time in Montana incorporated concrete and wood as well as metal, but over time the pull of working with metal became dominant in Morbillo’s creative process. The power of the natural environment, so immediate in the Big Sky State, also began to influence him during this time. His relationship with landscape intensified as he observed the hydraulics of western rivers cutting through rock; the freeze-thaw cycles of snow pack eroding the great Rocky Mountains.

In 1984 Morbillo completed graduate school and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he began working at Shidoni Art Foundry. His intimate relationship with all aspects of metal working, including the casting process, has enabled him to add an organic quality to his work, forging a connection between his own sculptural aesthetic and the forces at work in the natural environment. The influence of these natural forces can be as subtle as the change in seasons, or as abrupt as a volcanic eruption. It is this dynamic that Morbillo strives to convey in many of his sculptures.

Morbillo’s continued observation of the stark landscape and climate of the Southwest has also led him to incorporate greater contrasts and textures in his work over the last twenty years, further emphasizing the connection between Nature, Art and Humankind in the natural environment.

Statement:

The landscape of the American Southwest has had a powerful influence on my art since my arrival in 1984. I have explored the land’s peaks and valleys, mesas and canyons, fascinated by the textures, rhythms and flows that tie the landscape together and, at times, tear it apart.

The timeless power of the natural forces of wind, sun, fire and water is the constant thread that shapes this stark land. The geological influence of these forces is sustained as well as immediate, with events that reshape the contours of the land and our relationship with it. Our imprint on the land, while geologically short, has also been subject to these forces; left behind is a record of our tracks, tools and structures to be rediscovered and interpreted.

Understanding this or any environment requires patient observation; a process that takes time and should not be taken for granted. As an artist, I try to interpret my experiences in a way that furthers our cultural awareness and understanding.